This invention relates to aircraft doors, and more particularly to a midcabin door for an aircraft of blended wing design.
The normal passenger access doors of a passenger jet aircraft are located either at the forward or aft end of the cabin. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires that passenger aircraft be designed so that passengers can leave the aircraft in an emergency at a certain predetermined rate. To enable the exit rate to meet FAA standards, it is typical to locate additional doors at midcabin for use in emergency situations.
Typically, the midcabin doors open onto the aircraft wings and passengers exit from the cabin across the wing to escape slides or ladders. In a standard jet aircraft, the passenger cabin floor is at approximately the same level as the wing upper surface or at a slightly higher level. Prior art midcabin doors have therefore been built to move passengers from the cabin to the wing at the same level or from a higher cabin floor to a lower wing level.
With the advent of the supersonic transport, new fuselage and wing designs were developed to provide the proper aerodynamic characteristics for high speed flight. One of the body designs developed was that utilizing a blended wing concept. In a blended wing aircraft, the fuselage and wings are joined to form a smooth curve along the exterior of the aircraft with no discrete interface between the fuselage and the wing. In a blended wing aircraft, the cabin floor is some distance below the level of the upper surface of the wing. In order for the midcabin doors to be useful in offloading passengers, a walkway must be provided upwardly through the door opening in the fuselage and onto the upper surface of the wing.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a new, improved midcabin door for an aircraft.
It is a further object to provide a midcabin door for use on an aircraft of blended wing design.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a midcabin door which enables passengers to exit an aircraft from a cabin floor up and onto a wing surface higher than the cabin floor.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a midcabin door which lies substantially within the aircraft wing in the open position.
It is another object of this invention to provide a midcabin door which is suitable for use on aircraft having pressurized cabins.